Title: Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop
Author: Hwang Bo-Reum, translated by Shanna Tan
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Price: Rs 699
Where to get it: Crossword , Amazon , Kindle
“Reading is a form of escape, and it allows us to explore worlds beyond our own.”
Imagine a chilly winter night with the lights slowly dimming in each corner, and all you want to do is go home and snuggle up in your favourite blanket along with a book. May I recommend Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum?
This is a slice of life novel which shows us the power of time and second chances.
Hwang Bo-reum beautifully combines themes of community, resilience, and the transformational potential of literature. The book serves as a gentle reminder that stories have the power to transform lives everywhere, even in the most remote parts of the globe. It pays homage to the unsaid connections made in book-related settings — places where dreamers and readers come together.
The plot centres on Yeong-ju who resides in Seoul. From childhood to corporate life, she undergoes a stressful journey and finally, she quits her job due to burnout. She embarks on a new path, exploring personal growth and development.
We, as readers, are lured into her story of rebuilding her life, internal healing and making meaning and connections. She works through the doubts and anxieties that she faces in daily life. We also see how her life goes from well-settled, comfortable and living the “ideal life” which every person dreams of, to becoming the owner of a bookshop in the quiet neighborhood of Hyunam-dong.
Every character brings out how your dreams aren’t always what they seem to be. Here, Yeong-ju thinks she needs to climb up the corporate ladder, but turns out, all she wants to do is open a bookshop in a quaint corner of Seoul. The book also shows us that if we want to achieve a dream, we make it happen some way or the way.
In this book, we experience how to heal from the rat race — be it constantly working for a GPA of 4.0 or graduating with honours or getting a highly paid job. Perhaps this is why Hwang Bo-Reum has included a wide spectrum of characters from different backgrounds and in different stages of life.
This book is perfect to get you out of a reading slump. You can finish it in just a couple of sittings. As a student and avid reader who was in a reading slump since 2023 due to my board exams, I found this book to be the right choice before starting my academic year in May 2024.
The book gave me hope.
Hope for the future. Hope that even if I fail once, it’s okay and I can try again. I can try something completely different. This book reassured me that it’s better to take a moment and think about my future. Will the choices I make now make me happy in the long run?
By Nandini Karandikar (G11)
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